For some people, a nutria is nothing more than a big rodent.
For the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, nutria have become a big problem — so big that the LDWF is paying nutria trappers $4 per tail in an effort to reduce the nutria population, which has exceeded the local environmental carrying capacity in many areas.
Nutria populations are especially high in the Southeast Louisiana coastal wetlands.
According to the LDWF Web site, the semi-aquatic rodents are responsible for thousands of acres of damage to Louisiana marshes and wetlands.
Nutria, which are smaller than a beaver and bigger than a muskrat, are strict vegetarians and can consume approximately 25 percent of their weight daily.
University Assistant Professor Andy Nyman, who has studied nutria, said they like to eat the roots and stems of plants, which help hold marshes together.
“It wouldn’t be that big of a problem if just one or two nutria were grazing, but there’s the mommas and poppas, their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and so on,” Nyman said. “The plants don’t have a chance to grow back.”
Nyman said excessive nutria grazing results in the formation of small lakes, about 2-3 feet deep, where marsh can no longer grow.
The LDWF said when surface vegetation is removed from a marsh, fragile organic soils are exposed to erosion through tidal action.
A study by the University of South Florida discovered that nutria are very prolific, stating every female studied was either pregnant, lactating or both.”
According to Nutria.com, nutria are native to South America and were introduced into Louisiana fur farms.
In the 1930s, they found their way into the wild by either escape or release from the fur farms.
A strong fur market enticed many trappers to pursue nutria, and their numbers were kept under control until the 1980s, when the market for nutria shrank.
Since trappers had no real monetary incentive to continue harvesting nutria, they took up other professions and nutria populations grew rapidly, as did environmental damage.
Nyman said trappers were an important part of nutria population control because natural predators, such as hawks and alligators, do not consume enough nutria to offset their growth.
Annual wetland damage surveys indicate nutria impact an estimated 80,000 acres of Louisiana coastal wetlands at any one point in time.
Searching for a method to control the nutria population, the LDWF decided on an incentive payment program, which was implemented in November 2002.
The program pays trappers $4 per nutria tail and allows the trapper to sell nutria meat or pelts for additional profit.
In its first year, the Louisiana Coastal Nutria Control Program collected more than 308,000 nutria tails from 342 participants, and paid more than $1.2 million in incentives.
The LDWF also is marketing nutria as a healthy source of meat.
A Pennington Biomedical Research Center nutritional study shows that a serving of nutria meat, or ragondin, has more protein, less fat and and lower cholesterol than turkey, chicken or beef.
Baton Rouge Chef Philippe Parola incorporates nutria into the menu at his restaurant, Philippe’s, and has a list of ragondin recipes available on Nutria.com.
Nyman said he loves Nutria meat and compared it to eating squirrel or rabbit.
He also does not like it when nutrias are referred to as “rats.”
“They’re as much a rat as a squirrel or a beaver,” Nyman said. “They’re a cool little animal.”
The LDWF Web site said, despite looking similar to rats, nutrias are clean animals.